


A Baby Robin

by Chrystie, kate882



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Deaged Fic, Fluff, M/M, despite what the title says Dick's not actually a baby, more like 4 i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 12:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13100355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrystie/pseuds/Chrystie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882
Summary: “Dick got into a fight with a bad guy and something weird happened to him. I really need to talk to Jason,” Tim cut into the conversation again.“You hear that, Loverboy?” Roy had apparently put his phone on speaker at some point because Tim could hear himself echo.And suddenly Jason’s voice was much closer. “What do you mean something weird happened?”





	A Baby Robin

Dick held his arms up at Tim looking at him with a weird mixture of awe and hope he’d never thought he’d be exposed to. Especially not like this. Tim picked him up from beneath his arms, and held him to his chest as Dick quickly hugged him around the neck. “Timmy, can you do something for me?” He asked with a hopeful smile and big blue manipulative eyes.  

Tim was never great with children. Mostly because he didn’t understand them, but Dick had been sticking pretty close to him since the transformation, so he’d had to acclimate quickly. It helped that Dick did still seem to sort of remember them, even if the extent of that seemed fuzzy. But while Tim might not understand children all that well, he did understand Dick, so he answered the question with a healthy amount of skepticism. “That depends on what you want me to do.”

“Bruce took away my phone,” Dick pouted, “And Alfred gave me this instead,” he pulled out a toy phone with smiley faces for buttons instead of numbers that had been clipped to his pants.

Tim raised an eyebrow. “I thought you liked the phone Alfred gave you. Didn’t you say you liked the music the buttons played?”

“I do,” Dick nodded, “But I wanna call Jay, not Old Mcdonald. I hear he’s mean.”

“Jason or the Farmer is mean?” Tim asked, because he honestly wasn’t sure which one Dick was talking about, and he wasn’t even really sure why Dick wanted to call Jason.

“Old Mcdonald. Damian says he only has those animals to eat them and that’s bad for Batcow.”

“...Well Damian isn’t exactly wrong, but Batcow won’t get eaten,” Tim said, as loath as he was to admit that Damian might be right about anything.

Dick seemed to beam at that and then looked down to remember the toy phone in his hand, “Oh but Jay, can I use your phone to talk to Jay?” And there were those big hopeful eyes again.

“What do you need Jason for?” Tim asked, already trying to put together how he was going to get Jason here if Dick really wanted to talk to him.

“I like Jay,” Dick’s eyes seemed to sparkle.

“I see.” And really that wasn’t a good reason, but Tim wasn’t great at denying Dick things when Dick was a fully grown adult, much less when he was a small child. “Well, I don’t have Jason’s number. He won’t give it to me. Up until you told me you could call him from your phone just now I sort of assumed he didn’t have one. But I can reach him through someone else and try to get him to come over for a little bit.”

“Yay!” Dick cheered throwing his arms up and almost falling out of Tim’s hold. “Is it gonna be Roy? Can I talk to Roy too? He’s nice. Or Kori? She’s pretty. Jason’s pretty too. Probably the prettiest.”

Tim filed all of that away to analyze at a later time, not sure what to do with it at the moment. “Sorry Dick, but I think it’s best if I talk to Roy myself. Why don’t you go find Bruce and see if he’ll watch a movie with you?” Bruce had been running himself ragged trying to figure out how to fix Dick for the past three days, but Tim was pretty sure Dick could pull him away and force him to take a break.

Dick looked like he was about to disagree considering his pout but then seemed to reconsider. “You’ll definitely get Jay to come?”

“I’ll try my very best to make sure he does,” Tim replied.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” He didn’t understand how the gesture made a difference, but he’d seen plenty of children do it, so he held out his pinky finger for Dick after Dick held out his.

Dick happily wrapped his pinky around Tim’s and shook them for good luck before he jumped out of Tim’s arms like the acrobat he was and ran a few feet away only to stop and turn back around to Tim again. “Thank you, Timmy.”

“No problem.” Tim offered a small smile.

Once Dick was gone he pulled out his phone and pulled up Roy’s contact and hit the call button.

“You're not someone I get a call from often, should I be worried?” Was how Roy greeted him.

“Probably not. I'm just using you to get to Jason,” Tim replied, tone only half joking. “Is he around?”

“Jaybird,” Roy called out away from the phone, “someone misses you.”

“Does ‘someone’ have a name? Because if not, I'm not bothering to come in there,” Tim could faintly hear Jason call back.

“It's Alfred,” Roy lied because there was no way Jason would come for Tim.

“Alfred has my number.”

“Tell him it's about Dick, and that it's important,” Tim told Roy.

“It's apparently about Dick and important. They've probably found out you're dirty secret with their golden child,” Roy repeated.

Tim’s eyebrows shot up. “Well then I'm definitely not picking up the phone,” Jason answered.

“Dick got into a fight with a bad guy and something weird happened to him. I really need to talk to Jason,” Tim cut into the conversation again.

“You hear that, Loverboy?” Roy had apparently put his phone on speaker at some point because Tim could hear himself echo.

And suddenly Jason’s voice was much closer. “What do you mean something weird happened?”

“It's probably easier for you to see it than for me to try and explain.” It wasn't really that hard to explain, but that didn't guarantee Jason would come by.

“What the fuck happened to him, Drake?” Jason demanded. “And how bad is it that you're calling me?”

“It's not life threatening or anything,” at least they hoped it wasn't, “he got hit with some magic and now he wants to see you.”

“What kind of magic?” Roy asked curiously.

“The weird kind. B’s still trying to figure it out,” which wasn't a lie, “both of you should probably come. We could use Roy’s help too.”

Roy snorted. “Yeah, cause Bruce loves having me in his house. He called me a bad influence last time like Jaybird isn't the team leader.”

“Bruce can deal.” They needed another child expert around so Alfred could have a break from everyone panicking every few minutes with what to do with Dick.

Things were quiet for a few seconds, in which Tim guessed that Jason and Roy were having some kind of silent discussion. “Should we bring anything when we come over?” Roy finally asked.

“I don’t think so?” Tim had no idea what four year old Dick expected from them.

“We’ll be there in like an hour then.” And then they hung up on him without any goodbyes or anything. Tim had a feeling that had been Jason’s doing.

* * *

Jason wasn't sure what he was expecting when he and Roy walked into the manor, but a small child that looked just like Dick sitting on a couch with Bruce and Tim watching Aladdin wasn't it.

“Um,” was the only thing he was able to come up with. Roy seemed just as surprised beside him.

The tiny Dick turned around at the sound and then he was springing off the couch and ran face first into Jason’s legs, hugging him as best he could. “Jay! You came! And you brought Roy!”

Jason and Roy exchanged a look, and then Jason shot Tim a look that promised he'd regret not giving them any warning, before he crouched down to be at Dick’s level, face softening. “I sure did. I hear you were asking for me, Dickiebird,” he said with a smile.

Dick nodded quickly, stepping between Jason’s bent legs to hug him properly around the neck. “I missed you. It feels like it’s been forever.”

Jason wrapped his arms around Dick and stood back up, lifting Dick with him. “Only a week or so. Looks like you've been having some adventures since then though.”

Roy peered at Dick over Jason’s shoulder. “That's just not fair, why are you more adorable now than before,” he jokingly complained.

“I’m always adorable,” Dick said at the same time Tim tried to explain how Dick had been chasing a thief he thought was a regular guy until he hit him with some type of blast. The only reason they found him was that Dick still knew how to use his communicator and had called Bruce telling him that he was lost and scared and his clothes were too big. 

“And none of that could be explained over the phone?” Jason asked while Roy took Dick from him to get a proper look at him.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come if I’d told you, and Dick made me pinky promise.” Tim didn’t look like he regretted his actions in the slightest, but was only slightly embarrassed that he’d done it on a pinky promise.

“Yeah, Timmy’s good at keeping promises,” Dick beamed, giving Roy a hug too.

“If you boys are going to keep him distracted for the time being, I’m going to go back to finding a way to fix this.” Bruce rose from the couch, walking over to Dick to give him only a half stern look. “What are the rules?”

“No more flipping off the stairs when no one’s looking, and listen to Alfred,” Dick pouted.

“Good. He’s all yours,” Bruce gestured to the other three before promptly leaving.

“I'm going to edit that first rule,” Roy told Dick, a note of concern in his voice. “From now on it's no flipping off of the stairs  _ at all _ , regardless of who's looking.”

“But whyyyy?” Dick whined.

“Because Jason will worry about you. Do you want to make Jaybird worry?” Roy asked, and Jason didn't really have to fake the concerned look he aimed their way, he just had to imagine a four year old jumping off a staircase and he had the look Roy wanted down.

Dick frowned with a little sniff, “No. I want Jay to stay happy.”

“Then pinky promise no flipping off of high up places.”

Jason held out his pinky finger for Dick.

“Okay,” he sighed, “I pinky promise.” He sullenly wrapped his pinky around Jason’s and gave it a little shake.

Jason rewarded him with a beaming smile. “Do you want to finish the movie you were watching?” He asked.

Dick nodded and reached over to Jason with grabby hands until Jason took him back from Roy and Dick placed a kiss on Jason’s cheek with a happy giggle. “It’s nice when Jay smiles.”

“I'll smile for you whenever you want,” Jason told him, ruffling Dick’s hair.

“Really?” Dick gasped, “Can you smile just like that at our wedding?”

Roy turned on his heel to laugh into his hand so Dick wouldn’t see, and Tim was looking at them like a lot of pieces were falling into place in his brain. Jason ignored them for Dick’s sake, and sealed away his own internal freak out for the moment as well. “Sure thing, kiddo. But you'll have to be a bit older for us to get married.”

Dick’s brows scrunched together, like he was having a hard time seeing why the difference in age mattered. “Like when I’m five?”

Jason chuckled. “Sure, Dickiebird. We can get married when you're five.” Because hopefully someone would fix him long before then.

“Okay, I can wait,” Dick beamed, bouncing happily in Jason’s arms. “Timmy! Roy! I have an almost husband!”

“I can see that,” Roy answered, turning back to face them. “Which makes him your fiance.”

“Fiancé,” Dick repeated as if to try the word out himself, “sounds fancy.” Dick continued to bounce happily in Jason's arm's until he remembered the TV still existed. “Oh! Jay, Roy, did you wanna watch movie with us? Timmy and Bruce won't sing all the songs with me.”

“I don't know the songs,” Tim defended himself.

“Sure thing, kiddo,” Jason walked them over to the couch.

“I'm gonna see if I can get Alfred to make popcorn. Or at least show me where it is,” Roy said, heading towards the kitchen. He looked at Tim and gestured for him to follow.

Dick climbed into Jason's lap once they were sat on the couch and wrapped Jason's arms around him like a blanket. “Love you, Jay,” he said snuggling into the arm's.

Jason looked down at him and didn't really know what to say to that. Luckily another song started, and that seemed to distract Dick well enough, especially when Jason sang along with him.

* * *

“Man, if you'd told me what was going on I would have brought Lian. She'd have loved a play date,” Roy told Tim as they walked.

“I wasn't sure you guys would come of I did,” was all Tim had to defend himself.

Roy cut him a sly look. “I bet you don't think that now though. I could see you figuring it out,” he said with a laugh.

“Wasn't that hard to figure out,” Tim shrugged, “A better question now is does Jason know they're dating or does he think it's sex?”

“Oh, they both think that. Because they're idiots,” Roy said. “Think they're both worried about getting rejected if they try to move forward. Hopefully this will help Jaybird make a move once Dick is back to normal.”

“Hopefully Dick remembers all this when he's back to normal.”

They made it to the kitchen, but Alfred was nowhere to be found, so Roy started rummaging through the cabinets. “So, anything else we should know about the transformation? That's mostly why I pulled you aside, not to complain about play dates or talk about Jaybird’s sex life. Anything we couldn't say in front of the kid?”

Tim dutifully pulled out the popcorn so Roy could stop looking, handing it to him to search for a bowl. “We’re not too sure what he remembers, but so far it looks like he remembers every person he knows but not many specific events. Especially the more traumatic ones.”

“Probably for the best. That'd be a lot for a kid his age,” Roy mused, putting the bag in the microwave. He smiled a little as he faintly heard Jason and Dick singing ‘I Can Show You The World’.

“Probably. And who knows, maybe this'll be good for everyone once it's all over. Damian's been having fun getting to be the older one for once.”

“I guess, but it also means Nightwing's not in Bludhaven right now.”

“We’ve been taking turns patrolling Bludhaven,” that was luckily a solution they thought of pretty quickly, “tonight it's Cass’ turn.”

“That's good at least.” The popcorn started making noise. “You guys need any help with that?”

Tim took a minute to consider it, “Extra help might be nice but to be honest, I don’t think Dick’s letting Jason out of his sight any time soon. The only time he’d stop talking about how excited he was that Jason was coming over was when songs played on the movie.”

“I don't think you guys are going to get him to stay for too long. Even a night might be pushing it. This place makes him all kinds of uncomfortable,” Roy told him honestly, recalling a few panic attacks he’d had to calm Jason down from when they’d had to stay at the manor for extended periods of time.

Tim couldn't really say that was surprising, but given how things were going with Dick, Tim didn't think Dick was going to willingly separate from Jason no matter what they said. “We’re going to need to come up with some kind of compromise with Bruce. I don't want to deal with a mopey Dick Grayson.”

“He could sleep over with us for the night,” Roy offered.

“Yeah, I don’t think Bruce is going to be okay with that.”

Roy shrugged, taking the popcorn out of the microwave. “Worth a mention. Jaybird will probably stop by tomorrow though. If we leave after the kid falls asleep there’s no problem.” 

“Could work. We should probably ask Jason what he wants to do before we decide for him.”

“If we ask Jason before the kid goes to sleep, he'll have to answer in front of the kid.”

Tim hummed in agreement, “Dick’ll fall asleep eventually, he’s been throwing his energy full force into everything he’s been doing.”

Roy chuckled, pouring the popcorn into a bowl and starting back towards the tv room. “Yeah that sounds like him.”

They found Jason with a lapfull of excited four year old, chattering away while looking between Jason and the TV.

Dick seemed to be trying to tell Jason about anything and everything his mind could think of, all the while managing to compliment him between every breath and remind him that he loved him.

“That's adorable and I'm glad it's not me,” Tim laughed.

Jason shot him a look over his shoulder, and Roy walked over and dropped down onto the couch next to him, offering the popcorn bowl to Dick.

Dick happily shoved fist fulls into his mouth, mumbling out a thank you while getting kernels all over the couch.

They were halfway through The Little Mermaid when Dick finally drifted off to sleep, still in Jason’s lap and resting his head on Jason’s chest.

“So, do you wanna bail now while he's outcold?” Roy asked quietly and Jason nodded, trying to gently move Dick off of his lap.

Dick twitched and blinked awake at him. “Jay? Why’re you moving?”

Jason sighed, running a soothing hand through Dick’s hair. “It's time for me to go home, buddy. But I'll come back to visit you.”

“Noo,” Dick whined, burying his face into Jason’s chest and gripping his shirt, “Stay.”

Roy could see the quick look that passed over Jason’s face. Had known him long enough to know he wanted to give Dick what he wanted but also the anxiety the idea gave him. And then Jason was looking at him and Roy jumped in to help. “Jason’s my ride home, kiddo. And I've gotta put my daughter to bed. I could bring her by tomorrow with Jaybird if you wanted.”

Dick stared up with teary eyes at both of them with a sniffle. “You promise to come back?”

Jason wrapped his arms around Dick, smiling down at him. “Of course I promise to come back. But I can't stay tonight. Besides, you'll be sleeping anyway. You'll barely notice I'm gone.”

“And I snore, so you'll probably be glad I'm not here,” Roy chimed in.

“I’ll notice you gone,” Dick sighed.

Jason leaned down and placed a quick kiss to Dick’s temple. “I'll be back.”

Dick looked down to his lap and pouted. “Okay,” he mumbled.

“Can I get a smile for the road, Dickiebird?” Jason pressed.

Dick wiped his tears off on Jason's shirt and forced a small smile for him.

Jason smiled back at him. “Now, you’re going to be good for these guys while I’m gone, right? And you’ll remember Roy’s rule about the flips?”

Dick nodded, pout back in place but he still stood up in Jason’s lap regardless and pressed a kiss to Jason’s cheek. “Love you, Jay.”

“You, uh, you too, kid,” Jason answered.

Dick gave him one last hug before he reluctantly climbed out of his lap and towards Tim. “See you tomorrow too, Roy?”

Roy grinned at him and nodded. “Yep. Did you want me to bring Lian?”

“That’d be nice.” Dick’s smile this time was a little more sincere.

“Alright then, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Roy said, ruffling Dick’s hair.

Dick crawled into Tim’s lap as they left and flopped against his stomach, “I miss them already.”

“I’m still here,” Tim offered.

Dick gazed up at him with hopeful eyes and made his best attempt at wrapping his arms around Tim’s waist. “Can I sleep with you tonight?”

Tim wanted to say no, because he had kind of planned on staying up late to help Bruce research what was going on, but he looked down at Dick’s eyes and couldn’t make himself do it. So, he wrapped his arms around Dick and stood up. “Of course. Let’s brush our teeth and get ready for bed then.”

* * *

Jason and Roy showed up again the next morning, this time with Lian, who looked at Dick with furrowed brows. “Daddy, he looks like Dickiebird,” she told Roy, using Jason’s usual nickname for Dick.

“He sort of is,” Roy answered, and Jason could see her brows draw together, before she shrugged, and started moving around until Roy set her down and she walked over to Dick.

“I’m Lian,” she introduced.

“Hi Lian!” Dick clearly still remembered her and gave her a hug to show it, and she gave him a big smile. “I missed all of you but Timmy said you’d all be back so I was being patient and it worked!”

“By being patient he means he only asked me every ten or so minutes if you guys were almost here instead of every five,” Tim interjected, and Roy laughed while Jason smiled at Dick.

“It worked!” Dick repeated running over to hug Roy and Jason too.

Roy knelt down to be at Dick’s level when he was wrapped around one of Jason’s legs. “Hey buddy, Lian had me bring a puzzle she wanted to do with you, would you be interested in that? It’s a Disney princess themed one.”

Dick adopted an expression of excitement and nodded, “Yeah! And then, and then can we play hide and seek tag? Timmy keeps cheating with longer legs.”

“It’s the first time I’ve been accused of being too tall in this house,” Tim told Roy.

“We can play hide and seek,” Jason agreed, “but if long legs are cheating Roy and I might be cheaters too.”

“Alfred said cheating is bad.”

“Alfred is right, but I can’t make my legs shorter.”

“But we’re smaller, so we can hide better,” Lian told Dick.

Dick seemed to need a second to consider the truth in that before nodding. “Okay. Maybe Timmy’s just too good.”

She gave Tim a considering look, they’d never actually met before now since Tim didn’t really hang out with Jason and his crew too much. “Maybe.” She walked over to Tim and held out her hand. “I’m Lian. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Tim, and it’s nice to meet you too,” Tim offered back.

Roy pulled the puzzle box out of his backpack. “Timbo, where can we set this up?”

“Probably the coffee table in the living room,” Tim decided after seeming to take a moment to consider it, leading the way to the room they’d been in the night before.

Dick, instead of walking there on his own, which he was perfectly capable of doing, lifted his arms up at Jason, wanting to be picked up. And because Jason was weak to both Dick and children asking things of him, he complied, carrying Dick on his shoulders.

They managed to get about half the puzzle done before both Dick and Lian got restless from sitting for so long. Dick sat up and tapped Jason's knee, “Tag! You're it! Now you gotta count to ten and find us!” With that he scurried away with a giggle, Lian taking off in the other direction, and Roy just appeared to be gone up in thin air, leaving just Tim and Jason dumbfounded.

“Well… guess you better get moving, Timmers.” Jason covered his eyes and started loudly counting. He didn't hear Tim leave, but when he opened his eyes Tim was gone too. He found Lian first because she started giggling when he walked by, and then he had go hide.

They traded around for a few hours and no one ever did find Roy until they were all tired and collapsed on the couch and he suddenly walked in. “Are we done playing?”

“Daddy’s a cheater,” Lian accused.

“I'm just good at the game,” Roy countered.

“Cheater!” Dick repeated but didn't look all that upset tucked under Jason's arm.

“Where  _ were you _ ?” Tim asked. “I checked security cameras and I couldn't find you.”

“Now who's the cheater?” Roy arched an eyebrow, joining them on the couch and Lian crawled into his lap.

“No rules were specified to me about checking cameras,” Tim said defensively.

“Cause you're supposed to just know that you can't,” Jason said with a laugh. “It's implied since you're looking for people.”

“I only looked for Roy. And I was looking. In the security feed.”

“Timmy’s a cheater too and he still didn't find Roy. Does that make Roy a super cheater?” Dick mumbled into Jason's arm.

“I wasn't cheating; I was in Bruce’s room.”

Three pairs of wide eyes turned on Roy at once.

“Went through his stuff, but it was boring.” He grinned at them. “Figured none of the bird boys would so much as bother to think that someone might go there. Thought Lian might find me, but it's a big house and I counted on her finding you guys first.”

Dead silence for a few seconds before Jason started laughing, loud and open, which caused Dick to stare up at him in awe. “Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't realize you would do something like that.”

“You're either a genius or just insane,” Tim shuddered at the thought of Bruce catching anyone going through his stuff. “I'm leaning towards both.”

Jason had stopped laughing, but he was still smiling wide. “Man, when he finds out we’re going to have to bail out fast.”

“You're gonna leave again?” Dick’s surprise was replaced with sadness again as he clung to Jason's shirt.

“Not yet, kiddo. I'm right here,” Jason assured him, running his fingers through Dick’s hair.

“Why can't we have a sleepover?” Lian asked. “I'll tell Batman that he can't yell at my daddy, and it'll be fine.” She seemed very confident about this.

“Lian has the best ideas,” Dick agreed, “I’ll tell Bruce with her so then he’ll have to double not do it.”

“Dickiebird, I don't live here. I've gotta go home at some point,” Jason reasoned.

“Then I’ll go with you. I don't like it when you leave.”

“Bruce won't let you do that.”

“But,” and Dicks lips were starting to tremble and his nose was starting to run, “but every time you leave I don't know if I get to see you again.” Dick held fistfuls of Jason's shirt and hid his face in his chest.

Jason wondered if this was a fear adult Dick shared with this child version of him. After all, it was still Dick, and Jason did have a habit of just disappearing without much notice, so unless you were Roy, Kori, or Lian there would be times when you'd go months without seeing or hearing from him. And he and Dick weren't in any kind of established relationship, they just slept together when they were around, so he'd never felt much need to fill Dick in on his comings and goings.

“Uncle Jason, you made him cry,” Lian said accusingly, glaring at Jason.

Jason hugged Dick closer to him, continuing to stroke his hair. “Dick, you'll get to see me again. Timmy knows how to reach Roy if you need me. And I'll even give Tim my number if it'll make you feel better.”

“You mean it?” Dick sniffed, still refusing to remove his face from Jason's chest.

“Yeah, you mean it?” Tim asked incredulously.

Jason responded by listing off a string of numbers. “Put that in your phone Tim, I change it every three months, that comes in a month and two days, you have to remember to ask for the new one.”

Dick peeked up at Jason and offered him a teary but genuine smile. “Timmy will remember. Timmy remembers everything.”

“He's right about that,” Tim laughed.

“See Dick, it's fine. Now Tim can reach me, which means so can you.”

Dick responded by pressing a kiss to Jason's cheek and then snuggling into his neck.

“Why didn’t Timmy already have your number?” Lian asked Jason.

Jason shrugged. “Because Timmers hasn’t asked for it.”

Tim’s jaw dropped. “I have so asked for it!”

“Yeah, like two years ago when I still hated your guts. You haven’t asked since I would have been willing to give it to you.”

“I didn’t think you’d be willing to now.”

“Well that was your mistake, and not really my problem.”

“I’m going to set up a movie,” Roy announced, getting up from the couch. “Since all of you have been running around for the last three hours and look tired.”

* * *

The next day Jason came back by himself.

“Ah, Master Jason, did Master Timmothy not inform you?” Alfred asked when he answered the door, and must have come to the conclusion based on Jason’s expression that Tim hadn’t told him anything because he continued. “Master Dick seems to have gotten better over night. We think that the magic he was hit with wore off. He woke up in his normal body this morning and returned to to Bludhaven a few hours ago to make sure everything was alright there.”

Jason stayed for a few minutes to talk to Alfred before making an excuse to leave and hopping on his bike to start the trip to Bludhaven. He could only guess that Tim hadn’t told him because he’d assumed Dick had, so now it was time to go find out why Dick hadn’t.

He didn’t even bother knocking when he reached Dick’s apartment, knew he’d be out and about as Nightwing, even though it was daytime, making sure that things really were okay after he’d been gone for about a week.

He broke into Dick’s place and took up residency on his couch, flipping through the different tv channels while he waited. 

Dick climbed in through his window about an hour later and almost instantaneously jumped on him, ready to wrestle him to the ground until he realized it was Jason. “Oh Jason. Hi.” He didn't sound very surprised to see him.

“Hi yourself,” Jason said, from where he was pinned under Dick, whose knee was digging uncomfortably into his chest. “Wanna get off of me?”

“Right, yeah, I can do that.” Dick stood and held out a hand to help Jason up. It wasn't really visible under the mask but Dick looked a mixture of embarrassed and nervous being around Jason.

Jason took it, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. “Who the hell else did you think was going to be in here to give that kind of greeting?”

Dick shrugged avoiding his eyes, “You can never be too careful.”

“Right.” Jason rolled his eyes. “So, you remember your time as a kid or did someone give you the rundown?” He asked, getting right to the point.

“I remember,” Dick sighed like he wished he didn't, “I remember all of it.”

“And how much of what you were saying was you being a kid vs what you actually think?”

“God,” Dick groaned rubbing his face and collapsing on the couch, “As a kid I told you everything. Some things I’d never planned to tell you.” Which was pretty much Dick’s way of answering Jason without directly answering.

“Never huh?” Jason sat down next to him. “And here I was thinking you were the only bat capable of being open with your feelings.”

“Only when I can predict the outcome.”

Jason snorted. “So you are a bat after all.”

“Well I was raised as one.” Dick finally pulled off the mask, throwing it on the coffee table. “So? What are you going to do now that you know?”

Jason frowned. He’d been going over what he wanted to say on the drive here, but it all seemed to have flown out of his mind now that Dick was asking him. After all, he was raised as a bat too, feelings weren’t exactly his area of expertise. “...I mean, I’m here. I didn’t run away. So clearly I’m not having a negative reaction.”

“Then did you… I guess want to keep doing what we already were or?”

“No.” Jason sighed, running a hand through his hair. “What we were doing before was just fucking when I was in the area. I'm saying I want to do more than that. And I don't want you to be upset every time I leave because you don't know when I'm coming back.”

Dick looked slightly embarrassed at the reminder of that admission but was more focused on the rest of what Jason had said. “I think ‘more’ entails a relationship.”

“That's exactly what I mean, or are you trying to get me to actually say it?”

“Hearing you say it would be nice, but I won’t make you strain yourself.” And then Dick was surging over to kiss him. “I love you, Jay.”

Jason’s face was red when he pulled back, and he was looking at anything but Dick. “I,uh-” he did return the feeling, he really did, but putting voice to that, even after Dick had, was proving difficult.

“It’s okay. You don’t have it say it back now. I can wait.” Dick smiled at him to show that he really was okay with waiting.

Jason’s shoulders relaxed and he let out a deep breath, nodding at him. “Thanks.” He offered a small smile.

Dick took his hand in his and pressed a kiss to his cheek, “You did say something about bats being bad with expressing feelings.”

“We pick it up from the best,” Jason agreed.

“We do indeed,” Dick chuckled, “Now, c’mon,” he stood up, tugging lightly at Jason’s hand to get him to follow, “help me out of my Nightwing suit. Snuggling’s more fun as an adult than as a kid.”

“Oh god, you would be a cuddler,” Jason muttered, but followed along anyway. He supposed given how many times they’d slept together he should know that by now, but he generally left pretty much right after to make sure he didn’t end up giving himself away or something.

“And now you're going to have to suffer through it,” Dick grinned.

“I guess if I have to,” Jason jokingly complained.

Dick turned around, letting Jason unzip his suit and he promptly stripped down to his boxers. He pulled on a tank top before all but pulling Jason into his bed and wrapped himself around him like an octopus.

“Dickie, c’mon man, I can’t move,” Jason complained, struggling until he could get an arm around Dick as well.

Dick shifted around until her was only wrapped around Jason's torso like an octopus. “Better? ‘Cause I'm comfy.”

Jason rolled his eyes but settled in to spend the night with a clingy Dick Grayson, because apparently he was going to have to start getting used to that. Not that he really minded.


End file.
